Farm Babies: Ducklings Enjoying Good Weather

The farm babies are growing quickly around here…as they always do. Sunshine, breezes, clean water, probiotic feed, and lush pastures seem to be just the right combination for healthy animals. In addition, the weather has been particularly pleasant lately, mainly due to the low humidity – a welcome respite from the oppressive humidity we’d been experiencing!

The Runner ducklings spend the day in a tractor now, which helps immeasurably with the wet mess they have expertise in making. Give them a bowl of water and it becomes a free for all. Pine pellets in their indoor brooder can only do so much to contain the moisture, so it’s a relief when they’re big enough (and the weather’s warm enough) for them to go out on pasture.

I snapped this photo of them this morning, right after they were moved into the tractor. They’re so colorful – one has black markings, a couple have blue, a couple more appear to have fawn, and the other two may be dusky. And they’re so happy outside, where they can rip the blossoms off the clover and have free choice pool time. They still use one paint roller tray (very shallow), but have graduated to a (deeper) shallow cat litter pan, too. I prefer to err on the side of caution regarding water sources because ducklings can drown at this age – and I’ve heard many a sad tale from people who didn’t realize that and found out the hard way. As you can imagine, the little ones can hardly wait to get into the water and splash around. They’re already snapping up the tiny slugs that cling to the moisture left by the dew – one unfortunate gastropod was in the paint roller tray and didn’t last long, once the ducklings spotted it. They’re earning their keep already!

We hope you’re also having a good summer and that you enjoy the photos of frolicking ducklings as much as we do.

Welcome!

We're Carrie and Patrick.

We didn’t grow up farming; we spent many years doing long commutes to corporate jobs in the city. As part of that former lifestyle, we ate mostly food we didn’t cook: restaurant take-out and processed food from the grocery store. We didn’t look or - more importantly - feel good. Wanting a healthier lifestyle, we began shopping at natural food stores and food co-ops, graduating to doing the bulk of our food shopping at farmer’s markets.

When we moved from the Pacific Northwest to Kentucky and found our farm, we seized the opportunity to produce the kind of food that we want to eat, raised the way we wanted. Read more about us

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